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Why do I blog?

People take to blogging for different reasons at different times in their cyberlives.

Sometimes the blog evolves with the person; sometimes the blog stops serving whatever original purpose it may have had and withers on the vine.

I signed up fo my first “Real blog” on Live Journal, on May 10 in 2005. This was the entry:

“Looks like I’ve joined the blogger age. There will be more here in days to come, but I just wanted to star things off and dip a toe in the LiveJournal waters, as it were. For those who stumble upon this place, more about me at www.AlmaAlexander.com (sorry, I’ll have to figure out how to do links). Biggest news – I’ve two books out RIGHT NOW (the paperback of “The Secrets of Jin Shei” and the first part of my fantasy duology, “Hidden Queen”) and the second book in the duology, “Changer of Days”, is due out in a couple of weeks. Three books in less than a month, effectively. That is not bad going at all. More later -“

Well, the website is now at www.AlmaAlexander.org and I know how to link. It’s different books – but I’m still here, and still blogging.

I blog because it’s a way of talking to the world, and letting the world get to know me. And if along the way I mention a book or a story, it is a way of letting readers into the worlds of my imagination.

There are weighty blogs out there which are known for their opinions and have a great deal of cred in whatever area they are blogging in. There are blogs with thousands of daily followers, blogs which get 500 comments on every post even if the blogger posts nothing more than that day’s shopping list – there are blogs that are beloved, and blogs that are trendy, and blogs that are known for being funny, or amusingly vicious, or informative, or educational…

My blog doesn’t aspire to be influential. It is my virtual living room, and I am always happy when people drop in for coffee and a chat (or, in the virtual parlance of this world, join the conversation by commenting on a post). it’s almost impossible to predict which posts will get the most replies – sometimes a carefully thought out essay gets practically none and some silly meme gets a hundred within 24 hours and there’s no rhyme or reason to it – but I’m here, silly or serious, in awe or in righteous fury at the world that surrounds us, sharing my thoughts, my ideas, my aspirations, my stories.

If you’re reading this… come on in, introduce yourself, say hello. It’s always nice, when one is talking, to know that someone out there is listening…

—–Bizarre Habits of Famous Authors

Not all wordsmiths are peculiar — but some of us…

— Victor Hugo wrote both Les Misèrables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in the nude so he wouldn’t be tempted to leave his house. He even had his valet hide his clothes.

— Demosthenes shaved half his head so that he would be too embarrassed to leave home until his writing was finished.

An absolutely delightful blog post by Kelly Barnhill on kids and books.

I can’t tell if my son is transfixed by grownuppy books because he wants to be like his parents, or if he is actually up to something…I must now plan for a book-free household. It is clearly my only option.

If I have more children, I am for sure not teaching them to read. And that’s final.

I read because one life isn’t enough, and in the page of a book I can be anybody;I read because the words that build the story become mine, to build my life;I read not for happy endings but for new beginnings; I’m just beginning myself, and I wouldn’t mind a map;I read because I have friends who don’t, and young though they are, they’re beginning to run out of material;I read because every journey begins at the library, and it’s time for me to start packing;I read because one of these days I’m going to get out of this town, and I’m going to go everywhere and meet everybody, and I want to be ready.